Three Rivers Planning and Development District, MississippiThree Rivers PDD serves as the fiscal/administrative agent for the Mississippi Partnership, one of four areas of the state designated to implement WIA programs.The workforce service area of the Three Rivers PDD extends beyond the boundaries of its Appalachian Regional Commission’s (ARC) LDD program and is the largest in the state, cover 27 counties.

According to Clark Castell, former WIA director for the Three Rivers PDD, “With buisnessess like Toyota, Aurora Flight Service and ServerCorr Steel Mills, advanced manufacturing jobs are coming to the region.Our goal is to bridge the gap between the low skill and advanced skill jobs to prepare the workforce for the global economy.”

Lake Cumberland Area Development District, Kentucky
Roughly half of the workforce in the 10counties served by the Lake Cumerland Area Development District (ADD) are eligible to retire within 5 to 10 years. This has left the power industry with a ‘graying’ workforce. Coupled with a dearth of training facilities, rural electric cooperatives and utility contractors are shouldering expense for on-the-job training. Recognizing the dwindling supply of trained power industry professionals within its region, Lake Cumberland ADD began to examine the issue and pursue new partnerships to address the pending fallout.

Community and economic development staff focused on building new alliances and securing financing to construct a state-of-the-art training facility, while the workforce staff focused on launching a training curriculum designed in conjunction with industry representatives to meet industry needs.As a result, the Kentucky Regional High Growth Training Center, now under construction, will provide state-of-the-art training to current and future electric utility employees, as well as meet the growing training needs for water, wastewater and telecommunications jobs.

Mid-Ohio Valley Regional Council, West Virginia
Mid-Ohio Valley Regional Council (MOVRC), Mid-Ohio Valley Workforce Investment Corporation, Gilmer-Calhoun Technical Center and local management for Mustang Survival partnered to retool Mustang Survival into a more attractive place to work. The Canada-based company has specialized in the design, development, production and marketing of aerospace and marine safety and survival equipment since the 1960s. The company was under great pressure to increase production, even as sales rose steadily, which prompted a decision to expand the Wirt County, WV facility. The company struggled to expand its capacity due to a 70-80 percent annual employee turnover rate, primarily caused by low wages and a lack of health care benefits for employees.

After consultations with MOVRC and its workforce development partners, Mustang Survival increased wages by 70 percent in 2007 and started to offer health care benefits to employees.As a result, worker turnover is down dramatically.The company, with a $250,000 loan from MOVRC for equipment and $250,000 of its own resources, purchased new, computerized production equipment for the facility.The equipment is used for production and training current and future employees, particularly middle-aged employees.Training is financed with WIA funds.